Physical Education Teacher CV Examples & Writing Guide

This sample is a secondary PE teacher who also runs athletics and cross-country and teaches some PSHE. Names and schools are invented. Primary PE specialists should keep the structure and change the class sizes, units and equipment; there is a trainee version further down.

PE posts are usually decided by a headteacher, often with the head of PE or a deputy on the panel. In UK schools PE staff are expected to run teams, fixtures and clubs, so the panel is hiring for your after-school sport as much as your lessons.

• QTS and induction. Whether you hold QTS, the year, your training route and whether induction is complete, plus an enhanced DBS check. Add a second subject or PSHE if you teach it, because it lets a headteacher fill two timetable gaps with one person.
• What you can coach. Sports, age groups, NGB coaching awards, and whether you would run a team or help with one. Say it plainly, because it frequently decides the hire.
• Managing large groups. PE classes are large, loud and hard to supervise. Give class sizes, whether you share a space, and how you run several activities at once.
• Evidence that pupils improved. Fitness testing data, participation rates, option or GCSE PE uptake, house competition numbers. Panels have heard "promotes lifelong fitness" hundreds of times and it is meaningless without a number.
• Safety. Risk assessments, emergency action plans, concussion procedure, fitness suite supervision, heat and hydration policy, injury record. This is the part of PE that creates liability and headteachers read for it.

“Tell me your class sizes, what you can coach and one number showing kids got fitter. Half the PE CVs I read are a list of sports the applicant played at school, and that is not the job.”

People search for a physical education teacher career objective, but a personal statement works better at every stage, including for a trainee. Say what you teach, at what scale, what you coach and one result.

Two phrases to cut: "passionate about sport and fitness" and any mention of your own sporting career unless you are applying to coach at that level. Panels want to know what you can do with 30 pupils at 9am on a wet Monday, not what your 400 metres time was.

Keep it to about 12 lines and make them specific to teaching PE rather than to being athletic.

• Teaching: unit and lesson planning to the national curriculum, skill progression and coaching points, adaptive teaching by ability, small-sided games, station and circuit teaching, choice-based units
• Assessment: skill rubrics, fitness testing and reporting, individual goal setting, written work and NEA in GCSE PE or BTEC Sport, assessment policies that reward effort and improvement rather than sporting talent
• Managing groups: routines for large groups, shared and outdoor spaces, transitions, equipment distribution, behaviour management, keeping every pupil active rather than queuing
• Inclusion: inclusive PE, SEN support and EHC plans, disability sport formats, modified equipment, working with teaching assistants and physiotherapists
• Content areas: fundamental movement, invasion games, net and wall games, striking and fielding games, gymnastics, dance, swimming and water safety, outdoor and adventurous activities, strength and conditioning, yoga and mobility, lifelong activities
• PSHE if you teach it: healthy eating, mental health and wellbeing, drugs education, personal safety, first aid, and the sensitive topics your school's RSHE policy includes
• Safety: risk assessments, emergency action plans, concussion recognition and return-to-play procedure, heat and hydration policy, fitness suite supervision, equipment checks, allergy and asthma awareness
• Technology: heart rate monitors, activity trackers, fitness testing software, video analysis for skill feedback, Google Classroom or Microsoft Teams, SIMS, Arbor or your school's MIS
• Extra-curricular sport: sports you coach and at what level, fixtures and leagues, house competitions, sports day, morning fitness clubs, running club, family fitness evenings

Give this a section of its own above education. A headteacher has to confirm you can be employed as a teacher before any of your teaching is relevant.

• QTS with the year, your training route (PGCE, School Direct, an undergraduate degree with QTS or another route) and your induction status. In England QTS is awarded by the Teaching Regulation Agency on behalf of the Department for Education; Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland register teachers separately, so check the rules for the nation where you are applying.
• Exam courses where they help. Say which you can teach, such as GCSE PE, A-level PE, BTEC Sport or a Cambridge National in sport, and whether you have taught the theory papers as well as the practical side.
• Qualified outside England: add one line such as "Full GTCS registration (Scotland), application for QTS submitted to the Teaching Regulation Agency, September 2026". Schools hire teachers from elsewhere routinely but need to know where the paperwork is.
• PSHE, a second subject or exam course experience. These make you noticeably easier to timetable and are worth naming.
• Inclusive PE. There is no single UK licence for teaching PE to pupils with SEND, so name the training you have done, the disability sport formats you deliver and the settings you have taught in, including any special school experience.
• Safety qualifications: Emergency First Aid at Work or First Aid at Work, plus a pool lifeguard qualification (NPLQ) and a swimming teaching qualification if you teach swimming.
• Coaching qualifications: national governing body (NGB) coaching awards at the level you hold them, such as football, netball, rugby, cricket or athletics, plus concussion awareness training in line with the UK guidance for grassroots sport.
• A national professional qualification (NPQLT or NPQSL) if you hold one. It is a strong line for head of PE and director of sport posts.

PE posts attract a lot of applicants, so a trainee CV has to work harder than in shortage subjects. Fortunately PE placements involve real numbers, and most applicants leave them out.

1. 1Training and QTS first: degree, training route, key stages covered, when QTS is expected and when you can start.
2. 2Write placements like a job. The school, the year groups, how many pupils a week, how many lessons, the units you planned and taught, and how you assessed.
3. 3Give a number from your placement: a fitness testing result, participation growth, a club you started, a unit you designed from scratch.
4. 4Say what you can coach and at what level, and whether you will help with teams before running one. This is often the deciding factor for a new teacher.
5. 5List every safety and coaching qualification you hold: first aid, pool lifeguarding, swimming teaching, NGB coaching awards. They are quick to gain and expected.
6. 6Include holiday camp, youth sport coaching, leisure centre and after-school club work. It is direct evidence of managing large groups of children safely.
7. 7Say if you can teach PSHE, GCSE PE theory or another subject. Small schools hire on timetable coverage.

• Two pages is normal for experienced teachers, one for a trainee. Two pages is the UK norm, and schools shortlist against the person specification in the advert.
• Order: header, personal statement, QTS and qualifications, experience, extra-curricular sport, skills, education. Sport deserves its own short block if you run several teams.
• Fill in the school's application form completely. Most schools and trusts recruit through their own form or the DfE's Teaching Vacancies service and shortlist from the form rather than the CV, so "see attached CV" costs you.
• No photo, no date of birth, no height and weight, no list of your own school and university sporting achievements unless directly relevant to a coaching role in the advert.
• Mirror the advert's words when true: national curriculum, adaptive teaching, SEN support and EHC plans, fitness testing, inclusive PE, behaviour management, risk assessment, extra-curricular, family engagement.
• Have your supporting statement or cover letter ready. It is standard in teaching applications, and PE panels often ask specifically how you assess and how you keep less sporty pupils engaged.